You have made known
to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy
in your presence.
-Acts 2:28
Tag: joy
Who is Shaping Us?
I took a slow day recently and sat down to watch a movie. So-so movie. Classic good guy chases bad guy.
The bad guy, well, let me put that more accurately – the crazed, psychopathic, sadistic killer – enjoys the chase. He’s cocky and thinks he can’t lose.
He decides to make the game even more fun by coming straight to the door of the good guy, and hits him where it hurts most: his family.
The good guy internalizes that pain, that grief, and lets it boil inside him until the hatred turns to bitterness in his quest to hunt down and destroy his enemy.
In one last-ditch effort to mentally manipulate and control from his place of weakness, the bad guy spews to the other, “I…made…you.”
His last words are arrogant, demented, and maybe a little bit true.
In his quest to fight evil, the good guy gives in to the hatred the evil guy wanted him to. He lured the good guy in until he crossed that line before he even fully realized it. Or worse, he realized it but didn’t care anymore.
As their eyes locked and he used his last breath to try to control him and reel him in the rest of the way, speaking those domineering, pompous, mind-bending words, I thought about how the enemy of God does the same thing.
There are no new tricks up his sleeve. Oh, they may take different forms, different plots, different scenarios, but it’s always the same.
Slip in undetected in the shadows, gain our attention, come to our front doors if need be and attack us personally where he knows it’ll hurt most, and if he can time it just right, in the wake of some other trial, when we’re alone, when we’re tired, when we’re sick, when we’re stressed, maybe we’ll react in the flesh.
And if we react long enough, he’ll try to say he made us. He made who we’ve become, from being filled with anger, to unforgiveness, to bitterness, to leaving our faith and the love of Christ behind.
None of us is immune. Christians are his target, because Christ is his target.
Even if he can no longer take our eternal souls, he will still try to take our joy, our witness, and as much of our reward as he can.
But I don’t want the enemy to shape who I am.
I want to be shaped by the Christ who loved us enough to die for us and fill us with His Spirit so that He’s always with us.
I want to be shaped by the One who loves us enough to write His Word, His will, on pages for us to have, to read, to study and pray over, to hear Him speak to our hearts through.
I want every fiber of my being, every molecule, every thought, every word to be formed by the Christ who lives in me.
That can only happen when day by day, minute by minute, we hold onto Christ, giving up our lives for a life of faith hidden in Him.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
This is the new life we’ve been given in Christ. It is no longer our life, but Christ’s living in and through us. To some that may feel a little restrictive, but in reality it’s just the opposite.
We are now free of that destruction, that condemnation, that guilt and shame of sin, free from having to believe the deluded lies of the enemy. We no longer have to be lured in by the thief whose desire is to steal, kill, and destroy us.
Instead, Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
That word abundant is perissos, which means “in the sense of beyond; superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication excessive; preeminence: – exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, vehemently.”
In sharp contrast to the life Christ redeemed us from, we’re now free to live a life of forgiveness, hope, love, joy. We’re free to live in and through Christ forever.
But notice it says that we may have it more abundantly. It is our daily choice how much of that abundant life of Christ’s we want to live. Within those pages, Jesus gave us this to remember:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Daily.
Daily we must deny ourselves, daily we must take up our cross, and daily we must choose to follow Christ if we want to live the abundant life Jesus died to give us.
We may not have a bad guy to physically chase, but in our hearts and minds we can chase the ones who have hurt us by holding onto unforgiveness and anger and letting it turn into bitterness.
Instead, we can leave the bad guys to God and chase after Christ and His love, joy, peace, hope, and forgiveness. We can choose faith in Jesus, and let Him shape us.
Heavenly Father, we choose to forgive those who have hurt us and leave them in your wise and capable hands. Help us deny ourselves, let go of our “old man” and the world’s ways and abide in you daily so we can be transformed into the image of your beautiful Son and live the abundant life you so desire to give us. It’s in Christ we pray, amen.
Sunday Praise and a Prayer for the Body of Christ
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. Thank you for your unending, merciful love that brings healing and goodness into our lives.
Lord, we pray for the body of Christ, for believers whose spiritual walk has been lukewarm, who have allowed themselves to be pulled into the world and the love of things in it, who have been lured into the belief that they have just enough faith to save them, but are missing out all you have for them.
We pray that in your mercy you would open their eyes, soften their hearts, and bring them to repentance and a desire for spiritual things.
We pray our brothers and sisters would be unfulfilled by all the world has to offer, and know that what is missing is you. We pray you would give them a hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they would seek hard after you, and that you would fill them with the peace and joy they long to have.
We pray you would show them the way to true and lasting faith as they give their whole hearts and lives to you.
For those who have believed at one time, but whose hearts have grown cold, LORD, please reveal yourself and show them your desire to love and forgive them, to gather them under your wing and heal their hearts and minds, and to make known to them the plan you have for their lives.
For those who are abiding in you, but maybe there are some areas of their lives they have kept from you, please give your strength and courage to let you have it all. That we would give you our whole hearts, even the hard things, the things we can’t face alone, and face them with you, knowing you are compassionate and full of grace.
Father, help all of us yield our whole selves to you, that we can experience all you have for us, every healing, every blessing, every gift, and every bit of spiritual growth while we have time. And may we be a light, Lord, for the whole world to see how great is your love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Sunday Praise and a Prayer of Joy
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. On this Palm Sunday, we praise you for all you’ve done, for sending your Son in fulfillment of the coming Savior written about in the Old Testament of your Word.
That Zechariah foretold His coming in this way – “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey,” and that is just what He did.
And so we praise you, Lord Jesus, and honor and glorify you for coming as the only One who could have saved us, and has saved us from our sins. We are filled with joy that you loved us so much that you came to purchase our souls with the sacrifice of your own life, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
There is no joy like the joy of those who have been saved and filled with your Holy Spirit, that we might commune with you always, and know your love, your peace, and your hope. Help us walk in your joy as we keep in mind all you’ve done for us. In Jesus’ holy and mighty name we pray, amen.
Think About These Things
It is incredibly easy to get focused on what’s going wrong, what went wrong, and what might go wrong in the future.
Paul had plenty he could have been depressed about when he wrote his letter to the Church in Philippi.
He was writing while imprisoned unjustly and constantly guarded, and had to rely on people outside the prison to supply most of his food and anything else he needed. He lived with a chronic health issue. And he faced the real possibility of execution.
Five times he’d been punished with thirty-nine lashes, three times he was beaten with rods and once was stoned. He was shipwrecked three times, and spent a whole night adrift at sea. He faced danger from rivers, robbers, Jews and Gentiles, wolves in sheep’s clothing, in cities, deserts, and on the seas. He had sleepless nights, had gone without food and water, and had shivered from enduring cold without enough clothing to keep him warm.
But Paul did not focus on those outward things.
His focus was on his Savior and his calling, and both of those led him to have a heart for God’s people. Instead of thinking about all that was going wrong or could go wrong, he’s writing a letter to the body of Christ to encourage them.
He tells them not to worry about him, but reminds them the truth that his imprisonment has only served to advance the gospel inside and outside the prison.
He finds it praiseworthy that his imprisonment has served to strengthen the faith of believers, that they “dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.”
And he speaks of the loveliness of this body of believers in sharing in his suffering by sending him aid.
Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul are laser-focused on the Lord, on getting out the gospel for the sake of lost souls, and encouraging his beloved brothers and sisters.
If we’re abiding in Christ, our circumstances are in the hands of a gracious and merciful and loving Father. And the excellent thing about Him is that He loves to be our strength when we are weak, and He will use those circumstances in ways we might not know about until we see Him face to face.
Paul never knew he was writing the majority of the New Testament, and that 2000 years later we would be benefitting from the encouragement he took and wrote about to the churches while he was in prison.
Yes, there’s a lot going on in our own lives and all around us we could focus on that is untrue, unjust, unrighteous, etc., etc., and etc.
But we can take our thoughts away from those things and focus them on the Lord, the gospel, and our calling. We walk in the Spirit by first thinking in the Spirit, seeing our circumstances through the eyes of Christ, remembering He has a plan, and praise Him for all the ways He’s blessed us, is blessing us, and will bless us.
God’s given each of us spiritual gifts to use, and circumstances that allow us to use them.
I think about my own life, and let me tell you, it’s been a doozy. Almost from day 1 to now it’s been an uphill climb. Sometimes I come to some level ground, although even that’s been rocky. And every once in a while I come to an oasis – a true word from the Lord, a lovely friend, or a praiseworthy answer to prayer.
Yet I remember that it is in the very depths of those difficult circumstances that draw me to Christ, keep me needing Him, abiding in Him, and loving Him more and more. And without all He’s taught me through them, I wouldn’t have had much, if anything, to write about.
Even if we can think of nothing else, we can focus on the fact that
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7
So. What can we focus on right now, today, that is
True (truth)?
Noble (worthy of respect)?
Right (just, in character or act)?
Pure (innocent, modest, perfect)?
Lovely (friendly towards)?
Admirable (well spoken of)?
Excellent (praise, virtue)?
Praiseworthy (commendable)?
Hint: The best place to be reminded of all that is true and praiseworthy and everything in between is in the very pages of God’s Word. (Can you imagine Paul’s joy knowing that here we are in 2021 taking courage from his encouragement?)
And one more word of truth lived out by our brother Paul –
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:5
Heavenly Father, we give you praise for our salvation through Christ and for the continual blessing of the Holy Spirit. When we begin to get our eyes onto things or perspectives that would bring us down, remind us of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Help us remember and live worthy of our calling to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ. And thank you for preparing for us a place in heaven, where we will live with you and everything that is good and right and holy forever and ever. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.